Joseph Perkins: A green version of a double-decker I-405

A new study released this week by data firm INRIX confirms what most of California's 23.8 million licensed drivers know: The Golden State has the nation's worst traffic.

Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Jose each appear on the firm's ignominious list of America's Top Ten Worst cities for traffic, which INRIX determines from its analysis of traffic in the 100 largest metropolitan areas.

In absolutely no surprise to anyone, L.A. ranked worst of the worst, with five of the nation's 10 most-congested roads in 2012.

That included an 8.1 mile stretch of southbound I-405 in the San Fernando Valley, ending at Mulholland Drive. It should be a mere eight-minute drive under posted speeds but actually takes more than 50 minutes during "rush hour" – which is more like eight hours a day in the City of Angels, said INRIX.

Commuters on L.A. freeways "waste approximately six days per year in gridlock," the traffic study estimates.

When that's multiplied by the four decades or so the average person spends commuting, that works out to nearly a year of an Angeleno's life spent in traffic.

That brings me to Elon Musk, the 41-year-old visionary who founded SpaceX, co-founded Tesla Motors, conceptualized SolarCity and, before those three ventures, co-founded PayPal.

In an appearance last month on KCRW/FM, Musk was asked what, if anything, could be done to ease gridlock on the I-405, "L.A.'s worst freeway," according to INRIX, "consistently jammed in both directions."

"I think there's a solution," said Musk, a Bel-Air resident. "And I've had plenty of time to contemplate it while stuck in traffic on the 405. It's to double-decker the freeway with prefabricated metal sections that don't disrupt the existing traffic flow."

Musk's proposed solution didn't go over especially well with his public radio audience, many of whom never met a freeway they liked – much less a double-decker. But he is on to something that merits serious discussion at the highest levels of the state.

And he would be the ideal person to initiate such a discussion (although he told KCRW he's kind of busy with his start-up companies).

Their task would be to come up with a plan for a second deck atop the I-405 that could win broad support of myriad interests – labor, environmentalists, regulators, business, neighborhood groups, politicians and, of course, motorists.

A freeway on stilts above the extant I-405 will not bring all those disparate interests together. But a reimagined freeway – a futuristic "greenway" – could achieve such a miracle.

An infrastructure project on this scale would require the management of a company like San Francisco-based Bechtel, the nation's largest construction and engineering firm. It would employ workers supplied by Pulaski's CLF.

An architect, like Calatrava, would design a modernist, eight-lane deck with an aesthetic appeal matching the world's most celebrated public infrastructure. And neighborhood groups would get to sign off on the final design.

Now here's what would make the I-405 "greenway" different: It would be limited exclusively to zero-emissions vehicles, like the electric cars Tesla manufactures.

Daily drivers on the I-405 would have tremendous incentive to go electric and enjoy a speedy, uncongested commute on the I-405 "greenway," while, at the same time, shrinking their carbon tire track (as opposed to footprint).

And they would be asked to pay a user fee, based on their vehicle miles traveled, to help cover the cost of building and maintaining the next-generation interstate.